Jeanette
As I have been doing these spiritual
portraits, I realized that it really is not fair for me to ask people to
participate in this project if I am not willing to do one of myself.
I grew up going to church every Sunday.
“Jesus loves me, this I know” and I did know. But when I became a teen, some
devastating things began to happen to my family over which I had no control. Other people
were making decisions that affected my life and it did not seem to matter how I
felt about it. Over time I became disillusioned and it became a passionate goal
for me to be in control of my own life. As a young adult I made some really stupid
choices making an even bigger mess of things. I was miserable and I felt
hopeless. I realized that I did not want to live that way anymore. I had to
make a decision, who was I and what did I really want? Through many tears I
asked God to show me the way. When I reflect over the years I can see His work.
Now I have no doubt that Jesus loves me. I am far from perfect, but my life is
in His hands. I am a work in progress. Trust
in the Lord with all your heart and lean
not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will
make your path straight. Proverbs 3:5,
6. I learned this verse as a
child in Sunday school and it never fails me. I have learned in life that
people, no matter what relation they have to us, will eventually let us down in
one way or another. We are all human, we mess up. It's called sin. We forgive others because God
forgives us. So who am I? I can now say with all confidence that I am a child of
the living God who sent His son to live among us and teach us how to live.
Jesus died on the cross so that our sin could not separate us from God. If we
choose to trust Him and to follow Him, He will never let us down.
Jeanette Davis Ross 2008
I just wanted to share what god placed on my heart. Aside from saving the lost, this is what revival is all about.
September 23, 2009
I have had an epiphany. Up until now, about 3 am, I was not able to remember the day I “got saved”. I don’t know the exact date or even the exact age that I was, but I now remember this much. It was in a small Sunday school classroom with little bitty table and chairs at the Fountain Inn Presbyterian Church. I was singing “Into My Heart, Lord Jesus” and I meant it and He did too. The fact is, I was so young, I don’t even remember actually being lost,. But I know this, without a doubt, He has never left me. Even though I went through times of feeling abandoned by family and others and times of rebellion, I know for a fact that He brought me through all of it and even though He may not have been happy with some of the decisions that I made, He was with me. I have always known that, but I could not pinpoint my salvation day, which caused me to doubt from time to time.
Before this last week of revival I had never experienced a “fire and brimstone” sermon. Every night after each sermon I questioned my salvation and each night I went home and prayed I was reassured by the Lord. He reminded me of Psalm 56:3 which says, “When I am afraid, I will trust in you”. During last night’s sermon I have never been so frightened in my life. I honestly felt like I was having a heart attack and I wanted to make sure that I was not going to Hell, so I walked the aisle and declared that I got saved because I did not remember exactly when it had happened before. But the Lord showed me in the wee hours this morning.
After being brought to my knees during my times of rebellion, I would never
have started coming back to church if the Holy Spirit had not brought be back.
There have always been genuinely caring people at church, but there are also
plenty of judgmental ones as well and I have to say it was not easy and it
still is sometimes not easy. My husband and I were baptized together when we
joined the
If you want to call what happened last night a re-dedication, then I believe that is what happened, but I am now very certain that I was saved long before last night. So “Bring up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it” Proverbs 22:6. Conviction, repentance and forgiveness are evidence.
Jeanette Davis Ross
Into My Heart- childrens hymn
Author-unknown
Into my heart, into my heart,
Into my heart, Lord Jesus
Come in today, come in to stay,
Come into my heart Lord Jesus
Jesus said,
"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the
kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14